a visible church. In the highest spiritual sense, God was as much the God of Lot, as of Abraham. Lot belonged to the body of true believers, but with the visible church, or that body which was organized in the family of Abraham, he had no connection. In reference to it, therefore, God was not his God; no such promise having been made to him. And secondly, the same relation, as that established by the promise with Abraham, was also established with his children. "I will be a God to thee, and to thy seed after thee." It will not be pretended, that the children of Abraham, at eight days old, when the covenant was to be ratified by the application of the seal, exercised the faith of their father; or that universally, at any subsequent age, they were the regenerated sons of God. It was enough that they were the sons of Abraham, to bring them within the scope of the covenant. The church was not constituted to be an immaculate body of saints, but an organized community, acknowledging the true God, as the only proper object of religious worship—a community to which reve

lations of the divine will were to be made; and which was to preserve, and hand down these revelations, through successive generations. "To them were committed the oracles of God." With the preservation of the divine oracles, was connected their use, which would be blessed to the salvation of many in Israel.

In the administration of the initiatory rite to those who were entitled to receive it, the church received its formal organization. The circumcised composed the church as much then, as they ever did afterwards; and as much as the baptized do now. The favours which were subsequently conferred through the ministry of Moses, in specific directions for the worship of God, and in various significant appointments, adjusted to the promise, and which in their influence when rightly used, would concur with the word in the promotion of spiritual ends, were conferred upon the church as already organized. The duties enjoined were enjoined upon the church. The promises made, were made to the church. The fundamental laws of the community

were not altered nor modified; no new religious qualifications were enjoined—no new tests of any kind established for the admission of members. In these respects, Moses left the church as he found it, bound to God in the original and everlasting covenant.

By the law, or promise, establishing the visible church, an inclosure was made, in which were to be found, not only polished stones, but also a mass of rude materials, placed there to be subjected to the action of the instrumentalities of the Spirit of God. Such materials were the Jewish children, brought in at eight days old; and such many of them always remained. The instrumentalities were the word and ordinances of the church; and by the action of these, under the influence of the Spirit, many "lively stones" were produced, and assigned to their place in the spiritual temple. Such was, and such is, the precise nature of the visible church. With regard to all who are within the inclosure, the circumstance of their being there, and having God's mark upon them, implies that they are in covenant in the sense of the

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promise; and consequently, that they sustain the relation intended to be established by it, as the charter of the visible church's organization. God is their God. He receives them in while infants, and puts his mark upon them, as those to whom he designs to secure the enjoyment of the means of grace; not because they are believing, but that they may placed in the enjoyment of those means, by which faith is produced and strengthened. If, after they have arrived at maturity of years and understanding, they are found no better than when first admitted, the end of their admission is yet to be answered; and the same general reason, which at first existed for admitting them, exists now for retaining them. I say general reason, because we are engaged with general principles of ecclesiastical organization, and not in pursuit of special rules of ecclesiastical discipline.

Thus far in the view taken of the visible church, the initiated are considered as admitted to privileges, with reference to their own personal advantages. In addition to this, they are to be considered as parts of an or

ganization, designed for general religious purposes, to which the unregenerate may be made subservient, while the saving advantages are confined to the regenerate.

The emblem of an olive-a fruit tree, employed by the Apostle in Rom. ii., is beautifully illustrative of that feature of the church, to which the readers's attention is invited. A tree, besides its roots and trunk, has branches, buds, leaves, and fruit. It grows, and extends itself, by the springing of successive branches from those already in existence, just as the church is enlarged by the multiplication and growth of her children, those infant buds of the tree of the Lord's planting. If you require the Baptists to apply this emblem to the illustration of their idea of the church, you appear to be little short of unmerciful. Paul certainly never intended to worry Dr. Gill, yet he has been the occasion of his writing the most egregious nonsense. Let any one read the Doctor's commentary on Rom. xi. 17, and if he can make out a tree, it is one, the fellow of which, is not to be found in all the vegetable universe. It has neither